Guess Who Owns the Most U.S. Debt? Not China

The United States’ total public debt outstanding was approximately $13.562 trillion at the end of the government’s fiscal year on 30 September 2010. As of 4 January 2011, the United States’ total public debt outstanding has surpassed 14 trillion dollars and is continuing to grow rapidly.

The chart below, courtesy of Politcal Calculations, shows U.S. individuals and institutions, when including the Social Security, U.S. Civil Service and Military trust funds own 62.2% of the U.S. national debt, while foreign nations own the remaining 37.8%.

The big surprise of the chart is that China, contrary to popular opinion, only owns 7.5% of the U.S. debt.

Click to enlarge:

Notes:

“All Other Foreign Nations” are all those except China (for which Hong Kong has been included), Japan, United Kingdom, Brazil and “Oil Exporters”.